Katharine Moxham: Healthcare needs group risk to be effective

Benefits in silos are well and truly gone, and group risk is no exception to this.

Over recent years, group risk providers have worked hard to deliver value beyond the payment of claims, and to offer support services that complement their offering and health and wellbeing strategies.

Today’s group risk proposition focuses as much on mitigating risk and offering support as on paying claims.

As well as paying £3.45m a day in claims in 2014, group risk providers helped more than 1,500 employees back to work through active interventions, thus avoiding a long-term absence.

Death or disability has a life-changing impact on staff and their families irrespective of age or role. Crucially, group risk products offer support, such as employee assistance programmes (EAPs), HR and legal advice, online health assessments, mental health first-aid training and fast-track access to counselling and physiotherapy.

These benefits are extremely effective in keeping staff in the workplace, giving them the help they need to make life changes and supporting them back to work. Their services can be used every single day, even if a claim is never made, and can drive engagement and release money to spend elsewhere.

Increasingly, employers are recognising the value to their business of having a healthy and resilient workforce.

Moving forward, employers with group risk insurance protection will not only have insured their benefit promise, but they will be well placed to support prevention as well as cure.

Katharine Moxham is spokesperson for industry body Group Risk Development (Grid)